Raising the nurse mare foal.
We get our nurse mare foals from Last Chance Corral in Ohio. They rescue these foals from nurse mare farms when they are only days old. The foals require round the clock care their first few days and are kept at Last Chance Corral until they are able to drink milk from a bucket and are strong enough to travel to their new home.
Nurse mare foals are amazingly trusting and gentle. They love attention from their humans and immediately approach all visitors. They are groomed daily and enjoy having a bath. You can pick up their feet, rub their tummies and touch them anywhere. Because the foals are so comfortable with people we do try to teach them ground manners so they won’t grow up to be spoiled and unruly adults. A tarp blowing in the wind, electric clippers, wooden planks, tractors, horns, dogs are all things to play with and investigate. They are very curious and accepting of new things. The natural fear that they would have been taught by their mothers is missing, and that makes them easily approached and well adapted to human contact. However, having no fear also puts them at risk in certain situations, so they must have safe surroundings.
Since their mothers are absent, the foals have bonded strongly with each other. They do everything - eating, running, sleeping - as a little herd. It’s interesting to watch them at nap time as they lie down in a group like a litter of puppies using each other for pillows.
We are proud of the wonderful qualities of our nurse mare foals. These babies don’t deserve to be born just so their mothers can be used to care for a more expensive foal. While none of our foals will ever win the Kentucky Derby, all of them are valuable to their adoptive owners. We strongly believe that all life should be considered precious regardless of the breed or pedigree, and these foals will give years of love and happiness to their new owners as excellent trail or pleasure horses.
When choosing your foal.
If you plan to adopt a foal, do so with an open heart. The one you least expect may be the one to win your heart. Below are the then and now pictures of Daisy & Gabby. Looking at their pictures on the LCC web site I thought they might be harder to place than some of the cuter foals. These two quickly became favorites and blossomed into really nice horses. You just never know about these little guys.
We have six (6) 2008 nurse mare foals available for adoption. Go to our available horses page for more information.
Daisy only a few days old. Daisy at 6 months old.
2009 Foal Season
The 2009 foal season is here. Nurse mares across the country will be giving birth to babies for the sole purpose of being able to provide milk to another more “expensive foal”. As heartbreaking as this is to those of us who love horses, it’s just a way to make a living for the nurse mare farmers. Even though there are nurse mare farms throughout the United States, most of the information obtained has come from the farms in Kentucky. The average nurse mare farm in Kentucky has 70 to 80 nurse mares per season that are leased to the big Thoroughbred breeding farms. These farms can get as much as $2,500 per nurse mare. The farms have no use for the foals and because it’s very expensive and time consuming to nurse an orphaned baby, the foals are killed unless a rescue organization can take them.
There is some good news concerning the use of nurse mares. Walnut Hall is a breeding farm in Kentucky that has successfully used hormone-induced lactating mares instead of regular nurse mares to raise the babies when their moms are shipped out of state to be bred. The farm is excited about their success of using the hormone induced lactation method and hopes that other Thoroughbred breeding farms will see the benefits and follow suit. The hormone treatment only costs around $200, there is no risk of exposing their herd to an outside sickness, unwanted brood mares will have a job and most importantly, no unwanted foals will be born. Most large Thoroughbred breeding farms do not know or care what is happening to the babies of the nurse mares that they lease. They are the ones that can stop this unnecessary killing of innocent foals. There needs to be a public outcry against this practice if changes are ever to be made. Until then, we will save the ones that we can and hope and pray that someday this industry will be a thing of the past.
2008 Nurse Mare Foals
The nurse mare foals came in all colors, breeds and personalities. They were mixed breeds, with some showing the gait of a walking horse while others had characteristics more in line with a Quarter Horse, Thoroughbred or one of the Draft breeds. Many went in pairs to their new homes while some went alone to live with a new pasture buddy. It’s been a long hard journey for these babies in their short lives but they are now in good homes where they will be given the love and care they deserve. Watch video of 2008 foals. Thanks to everyone who found room in their hearts to adopt one of these innocent foals and give others a chance to live.
Metro Christian Living
Second Feature - September 2008
Rescuing Unwanted Horses
When it comes to pets, most consider them another part of the family and for horse owners, the story is the same. Recently, the issues of horse slaughter, overpopulation and the treatment of unwanted horses have prompted a lot of reaction from horse and animal lovers alike. Read more.
Gabby at LCC Gabby at his new home!
